This has been a, shall we say, "thorny" issue, muddied up further by the couple dozen defective 5D sensors. I've always tried to state the truth here, though it makes me persona non-grata with a couple of camera companies.
I bought my first D-SLR in 2002, so I've been swabbing sensors for almost 8 years. If you're in this field for the long haul and you shoot your camera just about every day, you should definitely consider cleaning your sensor yourself. On the other hand, if you are a casual shooter or a weekend warrior, and having some dust-bunnies is not Armageddon for you, then, yes, use a blower and send it in when it gets to be ridiculous.
I can honestly relate to dcains aversion to doing this again, it must have been horrifying to see that coating literally dissolve. But as I said, many of us need our cameras every day and sending it in every time the sensor crud builds up just isn't a viable option.
E2 was discontinued because they found that there really was not a big benefit to it over standard eclipse. It had to do with dry times, or something along those lines. It is not as though E2 was bad, it just was found not to be needed in the end. Keeping the product line simple with a one bottle solution also has its advantages.
Ben Horne wrote:
E2 was discontinued because they found that there really was not a big benefit to it over standard eclipse. It had to do with dry times, or something along those lines. It is not as though E2 was bad, it just was found not to be needed in the end. Keeping the product line simple with a one bottle solution also has its advantages.
Ben,
You're correct, E2 became superfluous and/or redundant and had a big negative with its residue. Eclipse is now a universal fluid and probably the best one on the market. I must re-empasize that Photosol waited until some long-term test results came in and satisfied the safety issue of Eclipse and coatings before discontinuing E2. And my cam was the lead beta-tester over a 2 year period.
This has been a, shall we say, "thorny" issue, muddied up further by the couple dozen defective 5D sensors. I've always tried to state the truth here, though it makes me persona non-grata with a couple of camera companies.
I bought my first D-SLR in 2002, so I've been swabbing sensors for almost 8 years. If you're in this field for the long haul and you shoot your camera just about every day, you should definitely consider cleaning your sensor yourself. On the other hand, if you are a casual shooter or a weekend warrior, and having some dust-bunnies is not Armageddon for you, then, yes, use a blower and send it in when it gets to be ridiculous.
I can honestly relate to dcains aversion to doing this again, it must have been horrifying to see that coating literally dissolve. But as I said, many of us need our cameras every day and sending it in every time the sensor crud builds up just isn't a viable option.
I'm new at this, I've only been using your products since 2004 when I bought my first 20D.
I use the sensor brush most of the time with only occasional wet cleaning.
Are you sure you melted the coating and it is not residue on the coating? I had a similar situation two years ago when I tried cleaning my 5D with the Green Clean wet/dry method. Even after using the dry swab twice I had residue that looked similar although not nearly as bad as your picture. After I pulled myself together, and figuring I couldn't make it worse, I used some original Eclipse and Pec pads. I used the plastic Green Clean swab sticks but refitted them with fresh 1/2 Pec pads. I used their wet/dry method: using a swab with 1 or 2 drops of Eclipse followed by a dry swab and a light touch. It took two or three attempts each with fresh pads but I finally got all the residue off. I then breathed a big sigh of relief. I can sure sympathize with your situation because I was horrified.
It may have been user error on my part with the Green Clean but I had used it because of reading of issues with the original Eclipse on the 5D. I suspect that both Green Clean and E2 have less evaporative diluters that leave residue. And I'm glad to read Nicholas' report on the safety of Eclipse. Fortunately my sensors have stayed clean because I'll still approach wet cleaning with trepidation.
I'm new at this, I've only been using your products since 2004 when I bought my first 20D.
I use the sensor brush most of the time with only occasional wet cleaning.
Yep, that's the way to go. The SensorKlear pen is another great dry tool that will stretch out the times between wet-cleanings.
A very informative post and a million thanks to the OP and Nickle S. (Nicholas)
A slightly off-topic note:
I was at a Canon-sponsored event a couple of weeks ago and they were offering a "quickie" camera cleaning. I saw the tech looking at the sensor with a Delkin SensorScope. He then proceeded to use a canned Office Depot compressed air to blow the sensor dust away. I was a bit concerned, but figured that Canon allows him to do this and that it must be safe.
One "caveat" though: The can has to be upright and use VERY short burst of air only.
Now I know why my 5D CMOS came back from Canon Service much dirtier than it went in. I didn't ask for a cleaning (it was perfectly clean), but they gave it a comp cleaning anyway.
I wonder if age or extreme or extreme condition would cause coating to unbind themselves from the glass? If so the swab is probably just helping to break up the film that is loosely attached and it might not have anything to do with the liquid apart from giving the swap more grip to the cleaning surface.
If indeed the E2 is to blame, and not backward filter, user error, etc, I'd imagine the company would be amenable to some kind of replacement assistance. Can't hurt to try.
Navyblue wrote:
I wonder if age or extreme or extreme condition would cause coating to unbind themselves from the glass? If so the swab is probably just helping to break up the film that is loosely attached and it might not have anything to do with the liquid apart from giving the swap more grip to the cleaning surface.
Navyblue,
That is a distinct possibility, but I think the odds are good that the coating was misapplied during manufacturing. From what I know of the process, there is a very specific temperature the coating material and glass must have to insure a proper bond. If it varies in the slightest, you've got yourself a faulty bond. But, again, these older coatings were not designed to be exposed and there is a history of the exact same occurences with the Nikon D70.
Mark Peters wrote:
Just curious - the sensor itself looks funky - but how about images taken with the body?
I'm curious about what images will look like now, and I'll shoot and post a few tomorrow. Previous to this event, the old 10D produced some of my best prints, and even though I've got several new bodies, the 10D remained a favorite.
I'll also touch base with Photographic Solutions this week.
I'm a bit confused here. I've worked on a lot of 10Ds and this does not look like a 10D sensor assembly to me. Take a look here to see what one looks like:
Ouch, sorry for the damage. Even if my own 10D is also a bit old and I use mainly my 5D now, I would hate to see it end up that way.
I remember seeing a couple of threads like this one, sadly (same kind of situations, and same kinds of results), but cannot find them. Each time it seemed related to the wet cleaning method, yet millions of cleaning with the same method did not end up in ruined cameras, so it is hard to blame it all on the wet cleaning method itself. But in the other hand, I do not remember seeing anything similar related to the other techniques, which are also very commonly used.
Sadly, the only economically viable solution may be to do just what corndog suggests.
Roger_Salmon wrote:
I'm a bit confused here. I've worked on a lot of 10Ds and this does not look like a 10D sensor assembly to me. Take a look here to see what one looks like:
I can assure you it's a 10D, bought it new, and I still have the box The picture (don't know what happened to the second pic I posted) is mostly upside down, though, with the flipped-up mirror on the lower left side of the image.
Just got home from work, and I need to get some sleep, but I'm curious to take a few pics with it this afternoon. I thought about a full IR conversion, but I've already got a Canon G5-IR, and after the novelty wore off, I really don't have much interest in IR anymore.
I seem to remember that a while ago on here, a rumour about a bunch of sensor covers were put on the wrong way round, exposing the filter coating to the outside world. In these cases, the solution just pulled off the filter coating.
Anyway, you are not alone, this has heppened to someone else.
Amazing!
So if I understand well, the surface of the sensor is damaged, but still the pictures are right, or is it just this one ? Have you made other tests ?
The picture (don't know what happened to the second pic I posted) is mostly upside down, though, with the flipped-up mirror on the lower left side of the image.